First Impressions
by SquirrelDash
Summary: Hunter is the OC I am using for this fanfic.  it's not mine, but it is used with permission.  It's a quarian bounty hunter who has no morals.  He likes money, and that's about t


_Beep!_

The alarm clock on Hunter's Omni-Tool made a simple tone that indicated it was time to get up and face the universe. Hunter dragged himself up out of the garbage he was using for a mattress; made sure he still had his guns, and pushed through the decay and despair that was the slums of Omega. He stepped on a few hands, kicked a few legs out of his way. A vorcha complained, and Hunter pistol whipped him in the face. Soon, he broke out of the slums and into the shopping district. Here, there were still crowds, but of a different flavor. Decay was still present, but there was a different sort of despair. Hunter could practically _feel_ the credits burning a hole in the pockets of the various customers. The deafening pings and dings of transactions flooded Hunter as he pushed and shoved through the lines. It gave him a headache, which didn't improve his mood. He started to jog, then run, then sprint through the crowds to get away from the high frequency din. Finally, he burst through the doors of the shopping district and found himself in the foyer of Omega. The pings and dings were muted, and his headache subsided.

To Hunter's left lay the airlocks where his ship was docked, directly ahead was the public transportation system, and to his right was Afterlife, the infamous bar and club of Omega. Hunter turned right. There was a line for the door, which he ignored. The bouncer didn't bother stopping him, which annoyed the rest of the line. Past the door, there was a short hallway before opening to the main floor of Afterlife. Hunter passed delinquents of various races showing each other how tough they were. None of them got in Hunter's way, however. Even they knew better. As soon as Hunter walked into Afterlife's main floor, his senses were flooded. Garish lights, loud music, and the noxious smell of alcohol all hit him at once. If Hunter didn't hurry, that headache would be back with friends.

Today his job was relatively simple. It involved taking out an asari dancer who his client had a beef with. It was hard to hear much over the club music and drunken blather, so he was pretty sure a gunshot would go unnoticed. Still, he was cautious. So he found the table where the dancer was performing and took a seat.

"No quarians." the dancer said  
"Hey, I haven't even done anything yet!" Hunter complained.  
"Regardless, you're bad for business. Get out." the dancer said.  
"But-" Hunter said.  
"Do I have to call security?" the dancer asked.  
"Wait! I'm throwing a party at my place tonight. I was wondering if you'd come over and dance for it?"

The dancer took a moment to consider.

"How much?"  
"Three hundred credits"  
"Where do you live?" she asked.  
"In the apartment by the shops." he said.  
"Fine. But get out, or I WILL call security."

Hunter got up and left Afterlife. He went to the apartment he had mentioned and waited around the corner. Soon enough, a lady in her 40's or 50's walked up to the door and unlocked it. Before she could make it inside, however, Hunter sprang from his place of hiding and slammed the butt of his pistol down on her head. The lady went limp. Hunter opened the door, dragged her inside, and found a closet for her to "sleep" in.

Six hours later, the asari dancer knocked on the door. Hunter opened it and let the dancer in.

"Let's hurry up and get this over with." the dancer said.

Hunter shoved his pistol into the gut of the asari and fired a shot. The dancer staggered backwards until she hit a wall. He fired three more shots: two in the heart, one in the head. The dancer slid down the wall, smearing blood across it on the way to the floor. Hunter grinned behind the faceplate of his helmet.

"Thanks for coming by" he said.

At that, he left the apartment and headed for the spaceport. On the way, he brought up his Omni-Tool and checked his account balance. The credits had been transferred, as promised.

"Excuse me?" said a voice from behind him. Hunter turned around. The voice belonged to an asari dressed in Eclipse armor. Hunter hated the Eclipse; they did a lot of security on Omega. Hunter hated security.

"Whatever it is, I didn't do it." Hunter said impatiently.  
"Are you Zael'Taibar nar Idenna?" the asari asked.

Hunter promptly punched the asari in the face, bloodying her nose and knocking her back.

"It's 'Hunter', and I didn't do it." Hunter growled.

The asari grabbed her nose.

"I was told that you might do that," she said rather nasally.  
"You're lucky I didn't shoot you."  
"I was told you might do that too."

Hunter was getting exasperated at this point.

"Do you WANT something, or are you just wasting my time?" Hunter asked.  
"I have a job for you."

Hunter perked up at these words. They were his six favorite words.

"Like I said, what do you want?"  
"Take care of John Shepard, the Spectre."  
"Public figures cost extra. Especially Spectres."  
"Would 500,000 credits do?"

_Ka-Ching!_ Hunter thought.

"Yeah, that'd do it."

...

_No!_ Hunter thought as he saw the airlock of the transport ship _Ayova_ start to close. He was sprinting by now, the tattered ends of his scarf-like hood flapping behind him. So when a human stepped into his way, Hunter couldn't stop or change direction.

"_Oof_" the human said as Hunter bowled him over.

Hunter quickly stood back up and looked toward the airlock. The spill had cost him the ship, the airlock had closed and _Ayova_ was gone. He looked back at the human just in time to see a fist smash into the side of his helmet. Taken aback, it took a while for Hunter to decipher what had just happened. He shook his head to get rid of the ringing in his quarian excuses for ears and watched as the human reached into a white bag that he had dropped when they collided. He pulled out some gauze and disinfectant. Apparently, when the human had punched him, his helmet had cut his hand. Hunter snapped back into focus, furious, and reached for his pistol. His hand met empty space.

"Looking for something?" The human said as he wrapped his hand.

Hunter spotted the pistol on the ground directly beside him and he picked it up. He shoved it into the human's stomach and pulled the trigger.

_Click!_

"It's missing a clip," said the human as he pulled his own pistol out and shoved into Hunter's gut. "Mine, however, isn't."

By this time, a crowd had gathered around them. Hunter was enraged, he was humiliated, but he wasn't stupid. He knew that the human could kill him then and there if he wanted, and if Hunter were in his shoes, he probably would.

"You win." Hunter growled.  
"Yeah? You act tough when you have a gun, but as soon as it's out of shots you're just pathetic. I ought to shoot you right here, you arrogant, slack-jawed, crap-for-brains, pick-pocketing, aquarium-faced, snot-spitting, heartless, mindless, self-righteous, obnoxious, whack-jobbed, bow-legged, filter-feeding, fart-sniffing, rotten, pyjack-rubbing, ratchet-loving, unhealthy piece of vagrant trash!" the human said.

The human put the pistol back on its magnetic holster.

"Get all that?" he asked.

Hunter smacked the human in the face with his pistol, which made the human fall backward.

"I ain't a vagrant." Hunter growled.

...

The _Kerryton 6_ was a medium sized transport ship, a space bus with no qualms about letting quarians ride. Though, perhaps it would have saved the lives of the poor souls who rode it that day if quarians weren't welcome. At least, if one particular quarian wasn't welcome.

It had been a slow day for the _Kerryton 6_, and most of its few passengers had gotten off on Omega, while only one quarian had gotten on. That left 12 still on the ship, including the pilot, crew, and passengers.

There were two engineers on the engineering deck. Both were huddled over their respective consoles, making sure that the mass effect core ran smoothly. Neither noticed when the door opened and Hunter walked in. Three shots rang out. There were 11 left on the ship now. Three more shots. Then there were 10. Hunter stepped over the body of one engineer to get to the console that he had once occupied. The console beeped and chimed as hunter manipulated the controls. Three long, tedious minutes of altering code later and the mass effect core overloaded and a rather loud alarm went off. Hunter's headache was coming back.

...

Hunter emerged from the engineering deck to find nine worried passengers. A few were pacing, more were huddled in corners crying. One asari was trying to console a heavily pregnant woman who was having contractions.

_Click!_ went Hunter's Carnifex pistol as he loaded a new clip into the weapon.

Almost instantly all eyes were on Hunter. There was blood on his boots, a pistol in his hand, and he had just come out of the engineering deck. Slowly, it sunk in that he was the cause of the blaring alarm.

"I'll kill the first person who moves," Hunter said bluntly.

Hunter slowly walked across the room, followed by the eyes of the passengers. When he reached the door to the cockpit, however, he felt a tap on his shoulder. The asari stood there with her hands on her hips.

"That woman over there is about to have a baby. I don't know who you are, or what you plan to do, but she needs help. If you have any goodness in your heart, you'll let me take her to the medical bay."

Hunter thought for a moment, then deposited three bullets into the asari.

"You moved." Hunter said. Then he pointed at two men that sat next to the pregnant woman. "You and you. Take the loaded chick to the medical bay if you must."

...

Pesok was a failure. Between thresher maw attacks and the sandstorms, Colonies just wouldn't stick. It had been marginally useful, as prothean artifacts had been found there. However, that was hundreds years ago, and scientists had given up on finding more. Now it was mostly ghost towns, with few spaceports still occupied. Dune was one of the ghost towns, however, and that was where the Normandy SR2 was docked. Shepard was there to investigate a distress signal from a transport ship that had crashed there.

Shepard was deleting messages from his private terminal. Normally, Yeoman Chambers would have notified him of the new messages for him to delete, but she was busy talking with Jack on the engineering deck. This in itself was a feat of bravery, as Jack was… temperamental.

"Commander, I have located the crash site of the merchant ship." EDI said.  
"And?" Shepard asked.  
"It appears to have been sabotaged." EDI replied.  
"That's not good." Shepard said.  
"Also, it might interest you to know that the distress signal was shut off soon after we arrived."

There was a pause as Shepard contemplated the implications.

"I'm going to check it out. Joker, watch the ship."

...

"Garrus, Tali, gear up. We're heading out." Shepard said over the Normandy's intercom.

Garrus Vakarian grabbed his visor and hopped in the elevator. Tali was already there, polishing her faceplate.

"Hello" Garrus said.  
"Mm." Tali mumbled.  
"Ever seen "Fleet and Flotilla?" Garrus asked.  
"No."  
"Do you want to?"  
"No."

There was a pause.

"What happens if you sneeze inside your helmet?" Garrus asked.  
"What do you think?" Tali said.

There was another pause.

"How do you go to the bathroom with that thing on?"  
"Keelah…"

Tali banged her head against the wall of the elevator. Just then, the doors opened and Jacob stood there with their gear.

"An Eviscerator and a Carnifex for Tali, and a Mantis and Avenger for Garrus. Need anything else?" Jacob said jovially.  
"Yes." Tali said.  
"What?" Jacob asked.  
"I need the Normandy to have stairs."

...

The transport ship was totaled. The impact was just soft enough not to kill anyone inside, but she definitely wouldn't fly again. Despite that, the problem wasn't obvious. All of the damage visible on the outside of the ship appeared to have been caused by the crash, not by any pirates or geth. Tali had crawled inside the ship to find out what had happened, while Garrus and Shepard circled the ship to find more clues as to what happened. When Tali emerged from the _Kerryton 6_, she found Shepard and Garrus on the other side of the ship. They were staring at an arrow made of dead bodies, all of which had been shot at close range with a high-powered pistol. The arrow was pointing at the capital building of a nearby ghost town.

"Keelah…" Tali whispered. "Who could do this?"  
"I don't know, Tali. A sick, sick person." Shepard mused.  
"Do you notice something?" Garrus asked.  
"You mean other than the giant arrow made of dead people?" Shepard said.  
"All of these people were shot twice in the heart and once in the head." Garrus explained.  
"Yeah. I noticed that." Shepard said.

After a while, Shepard remembered why he sent Tali inside the _Kerryton 6_.

"So, did you find anything?" Shepard asked.  
"What?" Tali said, still shocked at the grisly scene.  
"In the ship. Why did it crash?" Shepard asked.  
"Oh, that. Somebody overloaded the mass effect core. There's also a pregnant woman and two men in the medical bay. They didn't make it." Tali said.  
"That confirms that it was sabotaged. The only way to find out who sabotaged it is to follow that arrow." Shepard said.

...

Shepard, Tali, and Garrus hopped out of the airlock of what used to be a spaceport. Large holes perforated the building, and some walls had completely fallen down. As they walked out of the spaceport, sand swirled around their feet from the low winds. It didn't take them long to find the capital, as what was left of the road led straight to it.

"The Capital should be right through this alley," Shepard said as he looked up from the map on his Omni-Tool.

Shepard turned the corner first, stopped dead in his tracks, and Garrus bumped into him.

"Hey, why'd you… Oh. Tali, don't-" Garrus began.

Tali came around the corner to see the turian lying on the ground in the alley. Blood had pooled around the body, and the face had caved in from the high-powered shot of a Carnifex hand cannon.

"-look" Garrus finished.  
"Keelah…" Tali whispered.  
"Hey, I tried to warn you." Garrus said.  
"Shepard, do you recognize him?" Tali said.  
"No, but that could be because he doesn't have a face…" Shepard said.  
"I suddenly feel sick." Tali moaned.  
"So what else is new?" Garrus scoffed.

Shepard was too busy crouching over the turian in front of him to listen.

"See the placement of these shots? Two in the heart, one in the head. Sound familiar?" Shepard thought out loud.

"Gee, you think?" Garrus retorted.

Shepard pulled out a small card from the dead turian's pocket. It said, "Certified pilot of the _Kerryton_ line of transport ships".

"Well, here's the pilot." he said.

...

Hunter chuckled to himself as he adjusted his aim.

_Hello, Spectre._ he thought.

Through the sniper scope, Hunter could see his target crouching over the pilot. A turian and a quarian stood next to him, and the quarian was hugging her stomach.

_Goodbye, Spectre._ he thought.

Hunter held his breath and squeezed the trigger. A puff of dust went up where Shepard used to be.

_Used_ to be!

Hunter could see his target burst from the alley and sprint for the door of the capital building through the scope. Frantically, he ejected the spent thermal clip and shoved a new one in its place. But by the time he could bring the scope up to his faceplate, his target was gone. The turian had made it inside as well. The quarian, however, had tripped over the body of the pilot and was still in the process of standing up. Hunter shot a concussion round at the entrance of the Capital building, collapsing it. Hunter then quickly loaded a new round, swung the rifle back to the alley, and shot the quarian in the leg.

"That'll slow you down."

Hunter slung the Mantis sniper rifle over his shoulder. He then sprinted down the stairs from his vantage point at the top of the building and ran across back alleys and through derelict buildings until he reached the Capital. Tali saw Hunter and tried to stand up, but his shot had nicked a bone and she fell back down.

"Guess what?" Hunter said.  
"Wh-What?" Tali stuttered.  
"I want two things. Shepard, and a sandwich. You are going to get me at least one."

...

Garrus burst through the door and got behind a wall, out of reach of a sniper's wayward shot. there was a loud rumbling sound directly outside, and the entrance to Capital had collapsed.

"Ok… well, that's inconvenient." Garrus said.  
"No kidding. Tali's still out there, and we need to find her before our friend does. Let's find another exit." Shepard said.

...

"I will NOT make you a sandwich, you bigoted pig!" Tali screamed as she strained against the ropes that bound her.  
"Pff. You are obviously just Shepard's little girlfriend who he brings along in case he gets a craving for a sandwich." Hunter said.  
"How would I make one without bread or anything else though?" Tali asked.  
"You are Shep's babe, right? So you should have a sandwich-making kit with you at all times!" Hunter exclaimed.  
"What is WRONG with you?" Tali yelled.

Hunter brought his arm back to slap her, but then remembered the helmet. Then his eyes fell on the greasy rag he used to clean his sniper rifle.

"Gah! What are you doing!" Tali screamed as Hunter smudged the faceplate of Tali's helmet with the grease rag.  
"That's for being a lousy woman." Hunter said matter-of-factly.

Tali fell silent. She was tired of arguing with her captor. Besides. Her throat hurt from all the yelling. They were in a building just outside the Capital, Hunter had dragged Tali there and tied her up as bait. The door to the building was wired with explosives so that when Shepard opened it, he'd get a face full of shrapnel.

"Eh, forget the sandwich." Hunter said.  
"Thank you." Tali said..  
"Then what does Shepard drag you around for?" Hunter asked  
"I am a perfectly competent fighter, and can hold my own as an engineer better than most men." Tali said.  
"Perfectly competent? Can you use one of these?" Hunter said as he held up his sniper rifle.  
"I can't see it, you wiped something all over my faceplate." Tali growled.  
"It's a sniper rifle." Hunter said.  
"A sniper rifle? Well… no…" Tali said.  
"And why is that?" Hunter asked.

Tali mumbled something.

"What was that?" Hunter asked.  
"I can't hit anything with it." Tali said.  
"You WHAT!" Hunter said incredulously.  
"I'm not a very good shot. That's why I use the shotgun." Tali said.

Hunter couldn't contain his laughter. After he caught his breath, he sat down across from Tali and thought aloud.

"I don't know why he would, but if Shepard decides to come after you, he's going to regret it."

Just then, dust fell onto Hunter's hood from up above. Hunter looked up to see Shepard and Garrus peering down on him from a hole in the ceiling. Hunter brought up his sniper rifle, but Shepard jumped down and landed on top of him, knocking Hunter down and the rifle out of reach. Garrus stayed up above with his own sniper rifle trained on Hunter's faceplate.

"Surprise." Shepard said.  
"Crap." Hunter said.  
"Shepard!" Tali shouted gleefully.

...

Hunter walked through the airlock of the Normandy SR2 and was awed by the flawless interior of the ship. It was the perfect blend of civilian comfort and military functionality. And everything looked so _new!_ It was a quarian's dream.

"You fly around in this heap of junk? It isn't worth the varren spit that holds it together." Hunter said.

"HEAP OF JUNK!" said a voice from the cockpit.

Joker pushed himself out of his chair and stamped over to the quarian who insulted his ship.

"This 'heap of junk' blew up a Collector ship without taking a scratch. It can fly invisible to any scanner. Heck, it's even got LEATHER SEATS! It's worth more credits than you could even imagine!"

Hunter blinked, bemused by the frail pilot's outburst. Joker glared daggers at him for a while, then the glare slowly distorted into a grimace.

"I need an aspirin." Joker grumbled as he hobbled over to his pilot's seat.  
"That was unnecessary." Hunter heard a synthetic female voice say.  
"Shut up, EDI." Joker said.

Hunter walked around the galaxy map in the center of the CIC to the elevator. Shepard, Garrus, and Tali followed him warily, watching to see if he tried something. Hunter went into the elevator first, followed by Garrus, and finally Tali, who was limping because if her leg. As she hobbled by, Hunter grabbed the knife from the sheath on her leg and pulled her into his grasp, holding the knife against her back. Tali tried to resist, but Hunter just pressed harder with the knife.

"Let her go, Hunter." Shepard said firmly.  
"Or what? You'll shoot me? I guarantee, I'll have this knife poking out the other side of her before you can draw a gun." Hunter said.

Tali's heart was racing. If Hunter pressed any harder, the knife would pierce the environment suit, and potentially her skin.

"Alright. What do you want, Hunter?" Shepard said calmly.  
"First, take this elevator to somewhere private, then you can make me an offer." Hunter said.  
"Will my cabin do?" Shepard asked.  
"Fine. Whatever. Just don't try to pull a fast one on me. If there is any sort of company when those doors open, your girlfriend here gets skewered."

Shepard took the elevator to his quarters. The doors opened, and no-one was on the floor except for Hunter, Tali, Garrus, and Shepard.

"Looks like your boyfriend is smarter than he looks." Hunter said to Tali.  
"I'm not his-" Tali began.

Hunter stepped out of the elevator, turned to face it, and pressed the knife through Tali's environment suit. Tali yelped in pain as the knife punctured her back.

"Alright. Put all of the guns down and slide them towards me." Hunter commanded.

Garrus reached for a weapon to surrender, but Shepard grabbed his arm before he could touch it.

"I don't think so." Shepard said.  
"What? I'll kill her!" Hunter said.  
"Then what? If you do, I'll shoot you. Garrus will shoot you. If you make it past us, you'll still have to fight your way off of the Normandy. Then, you'd have to walk until you found a spaceport that isn't abandoned. Do you think you can manage that?" Shepard asked.

Hunter blinked. He hadn't thought that far ahead.

"I… I don't know…" He said.  
"Then remove that knife from Tali and lets talk about why you want to kill me," Shepard said.

Hunter wrenched the knife out of Tali's back and shoved her into the elevator. Tali fell into Garrus, who caught her in his arms and held her tight as she cried. Blood trickled out of the wound in her back, but that leak was soon plugged by her suit's coagulant injectors and auto-repair sequence.

...

Hunter sat on the edge of Shepard's bed as Shepard interrogated him. Garrus stood guard with his assault rifle, and Tali had gone to the med bay to get looked at by Dr. Chakwas.

"So, the Eclipse has a hit on me?" Shepard asked.  
"Have you been listening at all, or are you just stupid?" Hunter replied.

Shepard folded his arms and gave Hunter a look.

"Why are you so sour?" Shepard asked.  
"Sour? Me? You must have the wrong guy."

Garrus rolled his eyes.

"I'd cut the crap if I were you. If you're lucky, we'll have you tried for the attempted murder of a Spectre. If you aren't, Shepard's likely to throw you out of the airlock." Garrus said.  
"Alright, fine. All I know is, some Eclipse merc came up to me and gave me the job. I asked her if she knew where your next destination was, and she did, so I crashed the transport ship on a nearby planet so that you'd pick its distress call up on your scanners as you passed by." Hunter said.  
"And that's ALL you know about it?" Shepard asked.  
"That's ALL I know about it." Hunter said mockingly.

Shepard studied the hooded quarian before him. Though Hunter was ridiculously shallow in his love of money, he was a skilled fighter with a keen mind.

"Why do you wear that hood? Where'd you get it?" Shepard asked.  
"That's ancient history." Hunter said.  
"I'm curious." Shepard insisted.  
"Get used to disappointment." Hunter growled.

Hunter immediately bit his tongue when he saw the frown cross the commander's face.

"It was a gift given to me just before I left for pilgrimage." Hunter explained. "It's the only part of my past that I haven't left behind."  
"What about your name? 'Hunter' doesn't sound very quarian." Shepard asked.  
"That's included in the past which I just mentioned leaving behind." Hunter said.  
"I need the name, Hunter."

There was a period of silence.

"Zael'Taibar nar Idenna." Hunter spat out the words like they were poison in his mouth.  
"Aren't you a little old to still be called 'nar'?" Shepard asked.

Hunter jumped up and grabbed Shepard by the collar, but then he noticed Garrus and his assault rifle, let Shepard go, and sat back down.

"Yeah, I am. I never finished my pilgrimage. Besides, no quarian ship would take me on now. They aren't interested in my… skill set. Besides, I've shot enough quarians that I'd be tried for murder as soon as I set foot on the Flotilla."

Hunter thought for a moment, then added:

"And if you tell anyone that, I swear I'll kill you."  
"My lips are sealed." Shepard said.

There was an awkward silence.

"Do you still want to make a deal?" Shepard asked.  
"What kind of deal?" Hunter asked suspiciously.  
"I could use your skills against the Reapers. If you join me, I'll drop all charges against you."

Hunter thought for a moment.

"What's the pay?" he asked.  
"PAY! Shepard's offering to drop all of the charges against you, which are substantial, and you want to know how much you'd get PAID!" Garrus exploded.  
"It's okay, Garrus." Shepard said.

Garrus threw his hands in the air and walked out of the cabin.

"It's more than you'll make as a bounty hunter, mercenary, or assassin, that's for sure."

Hunter stuck out his hand.

"It's a deal."

Shepard shook the quarian's two fingered hand.

"I just thought of something." Shepard said.  
"What?" Hunter asked.  
"If I understand quarian customs correctly, being adopted as part of a ship's crew makes your pilgrimage complete."

Hunter thought about this for a moment.

"Ain't I supposed to have some sort of present or something?" Hunter asked.  
"Will you be loyal to me, this ship, and its crew?" Shepard asked.  
"As long as I'm getting paid, I'll do whatever you need me to do." Hunter replied.  
"Then I accept your gift of loyalty. Welcome aboard, Zael'Taibar vas Normandy." Shepard said.

Hunter was silent for a moment.

"Just 'Hunter' is fine." Hunter said.


End file.
